If your first reaction to the name 'USDD' is still the algorithmic stablecoin from back in the day, or if you have already started imagining the death spiral of UST, then you are truly misjudging.
The logic now is very simple, just four words: over-collateralization.
1. Reject Air Support
The collapse of UST back then was because it relied solely on 'confidence' and algorithms.
What are the collateral assets for USDD 2.0 now? TRX, USDT, and sTRX with a 6.74% APY.
To put it bluntly: if you want to take 1 dollar of USDD from the protocol, the treasury must lock up more than 1 dollar worth of assets. This is the same as MakerDAO (DAI) and is entirely different from algorithmic tokens based on air.
2. Data Doesn’t Lie
Take a look at the data from August this year: the total value of collateral is 620 million dollars, while the USDD in circulation is only 500 million dollars.
The 120 million dollars (about 20%+) cushion in between is specifically used to resist sharp declines. The latest data shows the collateral pool increased by 5%, but the supply only increased by 3%, indicating that this layer of 'bulletproof vest' is still thickening.
3. Don’t Trust Hype, Trust the Chain
Many project teams like to use black boxes, but all collateral assets for USDD are publicly held in TRON and Ethereum contracts.
Don't trust, verify. Even if you don't trust the project team, you have to trust the on-chain data. If the collateralization ratio drops below the red line, the liquidation mechanism is immediately triggered, and that is the sense of security that DeFi should have.
In a nutshell:
As long as this layer of over-collateralization is still there, it is not UST. Compared to those stablecoins that only shout on Twitter, I find this approach of putting assets in plain sight much more reliable.